Author Topic: And another event bites the dust  (Read 9059 times)

surf4food

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And another event bites the dust
« on: July 28, 2015, 09:27:03 AM »
Wow.  2015 so far has been a pretty shitty year for the sport.  At least in the competitive world.  2016 will probably be worse.

http://www.supthemag.com/features/breaking-news-brazilian-grand-slam-cancelled/
« Last Edit: July 28, 2015, 09:35:44 AM by surf4food »

OUTSIDEWAVE

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2015, 05:12:52 PM »
Yes I agree one  hand it is a bummer. but on the other maybe it points out he fundamental nature of sup  is that  many of  us are  long time surfers  waterman  kayakers etc.  and this sport is one that is personal no matter what form . Its hard to  watch a downwinder  as exciting as it might be .   who is to say what wave is better and what trick is harder worth more points  or what  rapid and particular style  garners more judge points.   so maybe  the lack of contests and such will drive more  of the soul side of the sport.Maybe?
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stoneaxe

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2015, 06:38:34 PM »
Must not have made $. Isn't that what drives the surf contests?

I think we'll continue to see a fallout in both surf and rcing. Standup racing is pretty boring for the most part. The flatwater stuff anyway. We have a pretty good venue at the Challenge on the Charles...lots of visibility to folks along the way but back at the start finish......it gets boring until racers finish and even then only if its a close one. That's a big reason why we have stuff going on at the dock and a great party after. The vibe is everything.

BOP style events are better, the potential for insanity in the waves on 14' boards and the excitement of watching someone that really knows WTF they are doing makes it work. The SUPathon is pretty spectator friendly both from the beach and the top of the dunes and I've both seen stuff that raised the hair on my head and watched amazing feats of athleticism there. Pretty good stuff for the price of admission IMO.

I think the shrinking back of events is to be expected. It was pretty inflationary there for a bit. Over saturation, simple as that. I think a smaller number of healthier events is actually better for the sport. One advantage we have is that we aren't in it for the money, we are totally on the soul side. CCBC is my family.

I think its about expectations. We put together fun events where we get to hang with our friends and make new ones while we work together for a good cause. We don't make much money on the SUPathon, a little more on the Charles. Pretty much everything we donate to CH comes from what our paddlers can raise for the crossing. our numbers are down this year too. I'm hoping the shift is to the soul side... :D
« Last Edit: July 28, 2015, 06:53:13 PM by stoneaxe »
Bob

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PonoBill

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2015, 07:51:59 PM »
On the west coast we went from a few events a year to a few events per weekend in zero time. Inevitable that some of them die. Unfortunately it's mostly the big events that are tottering, simply because they take so much to run, and when the sponsors get distracted the big budgets dry up first. the events that are a guy and his dog, with a twenty buck entry fee and the party is a cooler full of beer can go on forever without sponsors.

Same thing happened in the sailing world. Big events, then none, then local and small filled the vacuum. Guess what--they're better.

Events like the Challenge on the Charles are as rare as hen's teeth. A fine race with people you like, and then a gorgeous place to hang out and have a nice dinner and few superb beers while a world class band plays music and beautiful women dance.

That works.

You guys on the east coast need to treasure that. Attendance was down this year, which is just flat nutty. The BOP was a great event, but other than the spectator element of wave carnage, it didn't hold the candle to the COC. I've been to every BOP, and every COC other than the first one. They are both worth the effort, but the COC is one of a kind. And that's before you get to the fact that ALL the proceeds of the COC benefits a great charity.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2015, 07:59:18 PM by PonoBill »
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pdxmike

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2015, 12:55:47 AM »
That's a huge drop--races in 2016 vs. 2015 fewer by not one, not ten, but one brazilian.

PonoBill

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2015, 05:48:51 AM »
How many is in a Brazilian??
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surf4food

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2015, 08:38:23 AM »
I once had a Brazilian, but she dumped me for an Irish dude.

SUPcheat

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2015, 09:27:39 AM »
Isn't a Brazilian where you rip out all your pubic hair with wax?  No wonder the event died.
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capobeachboy

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2015, 01:13:17 PM »
BOP is gone but if you haven't heard SUP the Mag is putting on the Pacific Paddle Games at Doheny the same weekend they had scheduled in October.  They just announced board classes and the purse is $55k so it's bigger than the PRG.

http://www.supthemag.com/pacificpaddlegames/ 
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surf4food

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #9 on: July 29, 2015, 01:24:25 PM »
BOP is gone but if you haven't heard SUP the Mag is putting on the Pacific Paddle Games at Doheny the same weekend they had scheduled in October.  They just announced board classes and the purse is $55k so it's bigger than the PRG.

http://www.supthemag.com/pacificpaddlegames/

Saw that and it looks like it will be great event.  Overall though it just seems disturbing how many are being cancelled this year.  Hopefully it's just a healthy weeding out and will reach a steady plateau. 

TallDude

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #10 on: July 29, 2015, 02:37:51 PM »
BOP is gone but if you haven't heard SUP the Mag is putting on the Pacific Paddle Games at Doheny the same weekend they had scheduled in October.  They just announced board classes and the purse is $55k so it's bigger than the PRG.

http://www.supthemag.com/pacificpaddlegames/

The lead sponsor is Salt Life. I know Colin McPhillips rides for Salt Life. His new van is wrapped with a big Salt Life logo.  They've been running a lot of ads on Surfline too.  I guess they are looking to become the Hurley Pro of the SUP world?
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Weasels wake

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #11 on: July 29, 2015, 04:58:19 PM »
The same exact thing happened in the windsurfing end of things.  When the sport really first took off (mid 80's), there were all kinds of contests everywhere, all the time, now days, very few, but the sport is still strong.
Novelty breeds contests, until the novelty wears off, then only the truly dedicated contests remain.
It takes a quiver to do that.

yugi

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #12 on: July 30, 2015, 03:43:06 AM »
The same exact thing happened in the windsurfing end of things.  When the sport really first took off (mid 80's), there were all kinds of contests everywhere, all the time, now days, very few, but the sport is still strong.
Novelty breeds contests, until the novelty wears off, then only the truly dedicated contests remain.

Been to a PWA event recently? It's pretty much only the competitors, their parents and the locals from the spot. Kinda sad when you know the talent and training the athletes have.

Area 10

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #13 on: July 30, 2015, 04:19:42 AM »
It's the competitive aspect of these events that turns people off. Most SUPers I know either never want to take part in a race, or have done a few races for a season or two but have given up having discovered that to do well you need to do months of boring training and changing or arranging your whole lifestyle to focus on racing.

The events that tend to do well in terms of sports participation across the age ranges tend to be either team sports or where there is a personal challenge for the participants (eg. marathons performed for charity). So if we want to continue to have big events in our sport, I think we need to make them more "festivals of SUP" where racing is only one small part, and consider team competitions and fun activities like SUP Polo rather than just long grinds in flat water where all you have to think about it the pain you are in, and how nice it will be when it stops.

Of course, this will never happen, because competitive people cannot imagine a get-together with other people that does not involve essentially comparing themselves to others. And since it is those people who overwhelmingly are involved in organising events, they will continue to dwindle in participation numbers until they level off to comparable figures as you get in competitive rowing (at best) or eg. Olympic canoe.

Events like the PRG are at least more along the lines we should be heading I think in that there is an emphasis on a cause other than winning, a variety of activities to take part in, and it is fun for spectators.

The hard reality is that racing, especially flat water racing, is just about the least enjoyable thing you can do on a SUP, in the opinion of most SUP owners. I would prefer to measure the success of the sport by the number of SUP clubs there are. And in that respect I'm not sure we have been making as much progress as you'd think. There are race training groups everywhere, and groups run by SUP businesses, but how many truly amateur SUP clubs (supported mainly by subscription and/or government grants) are there worldwide compared to other paddlesports? Development of these kinds of clubs will require leadership from far more altruistic people than currently "run" SUP events.

stoneaxe

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Re: And another event bites the dust
« Reply #14 on: July 30, 2015, 05:09:56 AM »
I think A10 nails it. The events need more than just a race. The difficulty is in getting multiple things going on different levels with the limited # of volunteers available. That takes a lot of organization. Finding enough folks to run things is hard. I've talked more than a few times of either adding on to one of our existing events or doing another that was a massive demo day for vendors, with games going on all day on and near the water, food trucks, etc. I think I even used the term festival of SUP. We've kept adding to the things for folks to do at Mayo beach while the family/friends/spectators are waiting for the CCBC paddlers to arrive. Maybe we just need to up the games there. I'm going to be onshore this year. Might be a good year to test some out.
Bob

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